Be a card and cheer up a Scouser

Know a Liverpool fan who needs cheering up after Saturday’s ultimately courageous defeat?

Then head down to WH Smith and buy them this card – complete with photos of their favourite players, Chelsea FA Cup winner Raul Meireles and former Chelsea star Joe Cole, now at Lille.

3pm Liverpool card

Chicken-counters of the season:

The people behind these T-shirts still available on the internet...

3pm Manchester United shirt

3pm Manchester United shirt

Don't blame the player, blame the game

Man of the week is Rajesh Agrawal, CEO of money transfer firm and Birmingham City sponsors Rational FX.

Presenting Blues’ Chris Burke with the club’s player of the year honour at their annual awards bash, Rajesh opened his speech with the immortal words: “Well, I like to think I am a bit of a player myself."

Off-Key TV comeback

Richard Keys is back on TV with Frank Warren’s Box Nation, but alas not all are willing to forgive and forget.

During a recent outside broadcast, the crowd could be heard singing “there’s only one woman linesman”.

Second snub for the family Redknapp

Yet another managerial snub for the Redknapp family.

When the England celebrity team runs out at Old Trafford on Sunday 27th May for the annual SoccerAid match, their assistant boss will literally be Jamie Redknapp.

Like his dad, Jamie has lost out to a well-respected veteran. England will be managed by… Bradley Walsh.

Roy's a lit special

Well read: Hodgson's literary knowledge will be lost on England players who count childrens' books as their favourites (Image: Getty)

Roy Hodgson is heading some some interesting literary discussions when he meets up with England players later this month.

The new boss recently told West Brom’s programme: “I had a period where I read a lot of Czech books by Kundera and Klima. I’m interested in German writers like Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig. Then you have South American authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. So I like to read pretty widely.”

Plenty of common ground with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, then, who have listed their favourite novels as Cool by Michael Morpurgo – about a dog who brings a boy out of a coma – and Roald Dahl’s the BFG.

Current captain Scott Parker’s No.1 tome is unknown, although he recently admitted that his favourite film is The Bodyguard, which he admires so much he recently watched it all the way through twice.

Penny-pinching p*ss up

What attracted Aston Villa trio James Collins, Fabien Delph and Chris Herd to Birmingham's Gatecrasher club last Monday, where a post-club awards booze up led to ejection and a brawl with bouncers?

The club's weekly student night offers £1.50 Jagerbombs and £2 vodka mixers, ideal for the pennywise player struggling to get by on £30,000 a week, as Collins currently earns.

But the trio really ought to have known better from the Monday club's motto: "This party is a loaded gun and it's about to go off"!

Daft quotes of the week

"Didier Drogba's just a big loveable lump. Graham Norton seemed to get inside him last night” – CLIVE TYLDESLEY

“Ji-Sung Park is probably not as young as he was when he arrived at Old Trafford all those years ago" – RAY HOUGHTON

“Sheikh Mansour is putting his money and his mouth where his mouth is” – STAN COLLYMORE